Sharpening through the dull moments...

Life always has it’s dull moments, even in Nigeria.  Thankfully, the dull moments here so far have been balanced well by extraordinary ones.  The daily routine is becoming, well, quite routine. I’m grateful that my routine has a variety of activities and tasks incorporated here in the school. Going from teaching the color Green, to teaching about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, to Cicero’s Canons of Rhetoric is really nice. Time after school can be a drag if I let it be. I fight the feeling of being “trapped” inside the compound, as nice as it is. With the right tools (exercise, prayer, reading, music), it is definitely a winnable battle.

Rainy season continues here, and brings with it many adventures. Last Wednesday, Gretchen, Leah and I (along with little Hadassah), headed out to the South African compound for Bible Study—which, by the way, continues to be a huge blessing and highlight of my week.  Though the skies were clear when we left home, a storm quickly came upon us, and by the time we neared our destination, it was a raging monsoon. With incredibly low visibility, avoiding the ever-present and often enormous pot-holes was nigh impossible. At one point, we fell into a hole so big we thought we had lost our bumper. A three second hop outside (in which I immediately got soaked)proved otherwise, thank God. When we were what should have been 10 minutes away from the compound, we were informed that we could proceed no further because there was a bad accident ahead that would not be moved until the morning (that’s Nigeria for you). It’s now quite dark, still raining cats and dogs, we’ve just ventured 40 minutes in a treacherous storm, we’re a mile from our final destination, and most importantly, we’re three strong determined young women. The obvious solution then was to park the car and take off on foot. So, after wrapping our bibles and freshly made Apple Crisp in plastic bags, we took off.  We neared the accident and saw that a small car had been smashed between two semi-trucks—a mess which would definitely not be dealt with in short order. We were very grateful to find that one of our calls to the SA compound had brought forth a car and driver to pick us up on the other side of the accident. And so, we arrived about an hour late, soaked to the bone, to enjoy a lovely evening. The trip back was almost as eventful as the trip there. After trudging through the rain back to our vehicle, we found the visibility to be just as bad and the water on the road to be up to two feet in places.  We arrived safely back home with no problems, but it had certainly been a night to remember.

Another alarming driving experience occurred on Friday evening on the way back from eating Lebanese we ran into some normal looking traffic. As we neared the heart of the congestion, we saw a man lying in the middle of the road, most likely dead. From the looks of it, he had been riding an Okada (commercial motorcycle) and had been hit. No one was moving the body, potentially because the norm is to wait for the incompetent police to come assess the situation without anything being altered. It was a really disturbing sight though.

Other uniquely Nigerian experiences of the past two weeks include eating Goat’s head (gag me with a spoon please). Every week, the school butchers a goat to prepare a lovely spiced meat called “Suya.” Such a butchering allows some lucky few to enjoy the delicacy of the goat’s head. Basically they take the whole head – eyes, ears, teeth, brain, skin, etc.—chop it all up a bit and cook it with some spices and then serve it. I’m not sure what all my bite contained, but I definitely felt some rough skin, maybe some brain… thought it could’ve been some tongue….hmmm…. Meanwhile, a couple Nigerians were chomping down on everything, periodically removing the teeth or jaw bone from their mouth. Mmmmmm, appetizing, eh?

We ate more Nigerian food this past Friday at a baby naming ceremony for one of the teacher’s daughters. The baby was born about a week ago and the time had arrived to give her a name—which is not simple process here in Nigeria. We arrived at the ceremony to find QUITE the celebration – like a mini-wedding. The naming process involved all of the extended family picking out a name for the child. The parents would then choose one of the given names to actually call the little girl. The names chosen by the extended family were as follows:  Oluwafayotimisola, Oluwafeyisemilaanau, Ileriayooluwa, Mojadesolaoluwa, Arauluwanimi, Motunriyanuoluwa, Oluwateleayomi, Oluwatomikepe, Temidayoninuoluwa, Sarah (Princess), Michelle (who is like the Lord?). Now, which one of those would YOU pick to call your daughter? I’m not sure, but I think they settled on Princess. Good choice Mr. and Mrs. Afolabi.

Teaching has been going quite well. The preschoolers continue to be super cute and draining. Bible Class is rocking my socks off. Not only do I have an awesome time explaining God’s Word to these kids and answering awesome questions, I’m also being challenged to think through how God’s love is manifested in these Old Testament stories. How, for instance, is his love manifested in his banishment of Adam and Eve from the Eden and the Tree of Life? The Jesus Storybook Bible clarified the answer for me: “You see, God knew that if they ate the fruit, they would think they didn’t need him. And they would try to make themselves happy without him. But God knew there was no such thing as happiness without him, and life without him wouldn’t be life at all.”

 Lunch in preschool today provided another clarifying picture on the issue. When it came time to eat, little Nifemi rushed to her bag to grab her fish and spaghetti. Knowing the disaster that would inevitably result, I grabbed the food first and kept it from her, asking her to sit down nicely. She proceeded to pitch a huge fit, apparently not believing that I would actually give her the food and prevent a huge mess while I was at it. So often I am like Nifemi, not trusting that my Provider actually knows what’s best; not trusting that anytime He keeps something appealing away from me, he is doing it for my good. It was so hard for Adam and Eve to believe that God’s withholding the appealing fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was actually for their good. How much harder it must have been—and is even still—to understand that his withholding the Tree of Life from them was also out of his love for them. Am I willing to trust in the love of such a God? Am I willing to believe that his withholding of pleasantries is actually a preventative of the mess that I would inevitably make out of my life without Him?

As you can see, these classes are becoming the catalyst for some awesome discoveries about the character of God and my relationship with Him.  Thank you for your continued prayer. If you want to prayer specifically for a student in one of my bible classes named Hussein, I’d appreciate it. He’s in 6^th grade, with a clear distaste for the Bible and anything Christian. Oh, how I would love to see God’s love soften the heart of this child and bring Him into a right relationship with the Creator.

I will end today by noting that though dull moments do exist, I’m pretty sure God is using each of them combined with the exciting ones to sharpen this piece of garbage which He for some reason loves and enjoys calling “Child.”